Ligament · Foot

Bifurcate ligament

Ligamentum bifurcatum

A Y-shaped band on the top of the foot: its stem grips the front of the heel bone, and its two limbs run forward, one to the cuboid and one to the navicular. Because it straddles both halves of the midtarsal joint at once, it is called the key of that joint — a single short ligament tying the heel bone to both of the bones in front of it. The calcaneonavicular limb is usually the larger of the two. Its stem takes hold of the anterior process of the calcaneus, a prominence no bigger than a fingertip, which is why so much of what happens on the outer border of the foot traces back to one small piece of bone.